New York Powers Over Philly

“And it won’t be one player that’ll make the difference,” added injured guard Allan Houston.” It’ll be a team thing.”

As designed, the Knicks won -- and did it convincingly 96-88 over the Philadelphia 76-ers. And if there ever was a team victory, this was a team victory of the teaming-est kind: almost every Knick player had some kind of a season’s best. Stephon Marbury dished out 13 assists, power forward Kurt Thomas powered his way around for 11 rebounds and 4 resounding rejections, center Nazr Mohammed had 18 points on 7-10 shooting, and rookie Trevor Ariza was at his energizing best with 14 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals.

Still, the key to the whole thing may have been second year power source Michael Sweetney; the until-that-point seesaw game was tied 14-14 at the 4:35 mark in the first quarter when the young insider first entered the contest. Then after a strong Sweetney rebound followed by a lay-up, Ariza also entered. The pair of astonishingly youthful forwards -- between the two of them they’ve lived less years than Vinny Testaverde – rebounded, shot, stole, and dunked their way to an impressively intense 13-2 run that led to a 27-16 lead.

It was a lead that the Knicks never surrendered.

By halftime -- with the Knicks ahead 56-42 – Sweetney and Ariza combined for 16 points on can’t-miss 7-9 shooting, along with 6 rebounds, a block, and a steal. They did all this in 19 minutes of play. The entire Sixer bench had 9 points, and 5 rebounds at this point -- in 28 minutes of total time off the pine.

“Ariza is a young player with a great feel for the game,” Coach Lenny Wilkens said. “He plays with a lot of energy. He has great quickness and he reads situations well. Sweetney is a different type of energizer. He is a tremendous rebounder with great hands and scores so well in the low post.” A couple of Sweetney moves -- the big-bodied 6-8 forward displays the feet of a lithe dancer -- led to sweet turnaround jumpers that were indeed spectacular in this game.

Taking their cue from the young reserves, the Knick starters came out with excellent energy for the second half to sustain the large lead. Jamal Crawford, who had 11 first-half points, stayed hot, Kurt Thomas got hot, and Marbury was orchestrating things like a true maestro of the hardwood. And when late in the quarter the shooting cooled, the defense never let up in its white-hot intensity.

“That was the difference,” said Wilkens. “We never let up on the “D”. It kept our lead safe.” Wilkens has also shortened the rotation to nine players. “We had a good rhythm going for us,” said the coach. “And we wanted to keep holding onto that.”

“I especially like the way Nazr (Mohammed) played,” added the coach. “I don’t want him to feel like he has to score out there to be effective. I want him to think about rebounding and defending. Then, like tonight, his scoring opportunities will emanate from that.”

“Tonight was just a step -- but it was a step in the right direction,” small forward Tim Thomas said. “This is what a good team – and we are a good team – is supposed to do at home. We knew what we had to do from the beginning of the game. And we came out and did it.”